Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

confessions of a Vice Baron (1943) - being a bit of a Vice Baron myself and one who has seen a couple of these real early exploitation movies I was curious about this.  unfortunately, this is just okay and not really worth seeing though it probably would have been in 1943.  I'ts better than some of these but not as good as "gambling with souls".  the director doesn't have much flair, but he tells the story in a logical enough to follow manner and gets you from the begining to the end without too many bumps or scratches.  What makes "gambling" better is a strong and pretty female lead.  What's crazy is they go to the same "joint"  as in Gambling with souls which looks like the basement of a Papa Ginos and the floor show in this one is even worse .  forget half baked,  it's not even 1/4 baked.  there are some early 40's bellydancers that are cool at one point.  alpha video so quality is choppy in places 2.75 /5

[SkullBat308]

Transformers 2- Beyond stupid
MST3K- The Girl With the Golden Boots

[lester1/2jr]

Invincible Armor-  I used to watch tons of kung fu movies like 10 years ago.  I got real into it then I stopped, I don't know why I guess pre netflix i was spending alot of of money on the shaw brothers rereleases which were all really letterboxed and subititled and i kind of lost sight of the awesomeness of the dubbed, cheap o crazy kung fu stuff.  The general standard of Hong Kong Kung fu movies is so high, it's hard to know what to give a movie like this which is better than most movies I see yet is not close to being a classic I don't think.  It's a solid, cheap, entertaining kung fu movie with the requisite stuff about learning a secret style of kung fu, getting revenge and so forth.  It has the also requisite colorful robes, guys with white beards, and most importantly awesome martial arts with alot of high kicks.  there is a plot but it's pretty thin and like x rated movies, a plot adds alot to the action I think.  I got the western-type stuff about the guy wanting to clear his name and find the real killer but the white beard guys were kind of like, they were involved with the whole scheme but ....mainly they just got in more fights with the main guy.  nice print and dubbed not subtitled 3.75/5

[Rev. Powell]

ABSUDISTAN (2008): A young couple's about-to-be-consummated love is threatened when the women of their village organize a sex strike against the lazy townsmen who will not fix the pipe that brings water to the hamlet.  Set in an exotic, timeless locale and so spare with it's dialogue that it's almost like a silent movie; it's a lusty romantic comedy that manages to feel completely original without sacrificing the romance and sentimentality fans of the genre expect. 4/5.

CRASH (2004): Follows the intertwining and racially charged stories of ten or more characters in Los Angeles, including a racist cop (Matt Dillon), a pair of black car thieves, a Hispanic locksmith, and a Persian immigrant shopkeeper.  Beautifully acted by a huge ensemble cast and wonderfully scripted (you never get lost among all the competing stories or lose track of who is who); you do have to overlook a certain feeling of liberal smugness, though, since every scenario was jotted down on the back of a race card. 4.5/5.

[3mnkids]

coffin rock~An Australian fatal attraction only with the man as the psycho.  It was alright. nothing new and the ending wasn't so great but it was watchable.

Carriers~ A pandemic wipes out all but a few survivors. eh, been there and seen that.  Worth a one time watch if you are bored.

[lester1/2jr]

The Master- not the bad Jet Li movie from 1980, shaw brothers one.  very dissapointing.  I'm a HUGE fan of Chin-Ku Lu.  He was one of the first "new wave" directors in Hong kong and he had the ability to not only use crazy special effects but tell a story too.  "Secret Service of the Imperial Court" and "Bastard Swordsman" are two of my favorite movies of the hundreds of kung fu movies I've seen and while "Holy Flame of the martial world" tips the hat more in favor of out and out insanity I love it too.  When all the shaw brothers rereleases came out I didn't manage to get this one and now I don't regret it.  It's really the very model of a formulaic martial arts movie with the struggling kid and the master and the bad guys. and it's a dopey comedy too.  I wouldn't think "nondescript " would ever apply to one of this guys movies but that's just what this is.  it's not BAD, just forgettable.  the opening montage has the students practicing at what is translated as "decent kung fu school" which was kind of funny.  the master is like not that good so the guy has to find another one.

[Jack]

Demons at the Door (2004) - An intentionally horrible movie about a small group of people being attacked by demons.  Think SyFy Original type plot, except with even worse acting, vastly inferior special effects, and an overall attitude of idiotic = funny.  It wasn't completely unentertaining.  Sort of like a good bloody car crash.  2/5.

[Jim H]

The Master- not the bad Jet Li movie from 1980, shaw brothers one.  very dissapointing.  I'm a HUGE fan of Chin-Ku Lu.  He was one of the first "new wave" directors in Hong kong and he had the ability to not only use crazy special effects but tell a story too.  "Secret Service of the Imperial Court" and "Bastard Swordsman" are two of my favorite movies of the hundreds of kung fu movies I've seen and while "Holy Flame of the martial world" tips the hat more in favor of out and out insanity I love it too.  When all the shaw brothers rereleases came out I didn't manage to get this one and now I don't regret it.  It's really the very model of a formulaic martial arts movie with the struggling kid and the master and the bad guys. and it's a dopey comedy too.  I wouldn't think "nondescript " would ever apply to one of this guys movies but that's just what this is.  it's not BAD, just forgettable.  the opening montage has the students practicing at what is translated as "decent kung fu school" which was kind of funny.  the master is like not that good so the guy has to find another one.

That's the one starring Ti Lung, right?  I'd always heard that was pretty good.  Too bad.

I watched It's A Wonderful Life.  It'd been ages since I'd seen it from beginning to end, and when my stepdad found out my sister hadn't seen it he went out and bought it immediately, then we watched it.  What can you really say about the film?  10/10.

Today I was feeling depressed and watched the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film.  For a film that is a live action adaptation of a comic about talking mutated ninja turtles that fight ninja bad guys in modern day New York city while yelling out surfer slang, it's as good as you could possibly expect.  The film looks good, the fight scenes are entertaining, the animatronics and voice acting are excellent, there's actually some development on every character (small amounts, but it is there), the human characters are really well portrayed (especially Elias Koteas as Casey Jones, perfect casting), and the ending is great.  It's far from perfect, and slows down a little too much in the middle, and now that I'm older I don't enjoy all the turtles hijinks quite as much as I used to, but it's still a genuinely good and fun film.

An 8/10.

Oh yeah, and one thing I noticed for the first time: Sam Rockwell plays the "lead thug" amongst the foot clan, the one whose face you see who talks to the police at the end.  He's REALLY young, but I still recognized him and spotted his name in the credits.

[SkullBat308]

Pontypool
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Ninja Assassin
MST3K- Overdrawn at the Memory Bank
MST3K- Space Mutiny

[asimpson2006]

Ninja Assassin - *** out of ****.  It was over the top with the violence and yet I was reasonably pleased and was not bored during the film at all.  It would have been interesting to get more back story for the main character like why he ended up with the Ninja clan that he was with, or his family before that.

Caligula- ** out of ****.  I though I would have been disgusted by this film but I was not.  I was expecting it to be more graphic in terms of the sex but I was some what caught off guard that it wasn't as bad as I expected.  I wish the pacing would have moved a lot faster because it just moved so slow.

[lester1/2jr]

jim h- not the same one I don't think

skullbat- I read a mst3k thing on line written by someone from the show saying Overdrawn was the dullest, most depressing thing he'd ever seen, of all the movies they ever did which is saying something


Close Encounters of the third kind (1977) -  I saw this in the theatre when I was like 2 and hadn't seen it since so I for practical purposes had never seen it.  I was impressed, but I can see why Spielberg went for something more conventional the next time around (star wars).  Were it not for the amazing special effects this would remind me of David Lynch or Werner Herzog more than Spielberg, it's got a very long slow arch and exceedingly simple but kind of weird storyline.  Aliens use a kind of psychic wave to try and draw seemingly random people to go to this mound thing in the desert.    
                        
                                   Don't get me wrong, he  pulls it off but it's not perfect, mainly because he doesn't really have the type of lyricism one would need to make use of all that real timey sort of space.  Some of the elements like the governments hustling and bustling to try and contain things and the alien creatures would resurface in ET but you knew that.  "making of... " extra seems to indicate Spielberg and co were/ are big time true believers in alien visitation and whatnot.

4.75 / 5

[Rev. Powell]

INK (2009): A cowled figure snatches an 8-year old girl from her bedroom and is tracked by dream guardians; the girl's body falls into a coma as her estranged, workaholic father refuses to leave a big business deal to visit her in the hospital.  A truly original grown up fairy take with inventive visuals and a simple to follow allegory; the style of first time director Jamin Winans' movie has been compared to Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton, and he measures up.  The effects are low budget but very effective, showing how a pinch of imagination is worth a ton of CGI.  Definitely worth a viewing.  4.5/5.

[JaseSF]

White Christmas (1954): Two former soldiers (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) turned successful entertainers decide to try and boost business for their former General (Dean Jagger) who has now fallen upon tough times running a rather unsuccessful inn in Vermont. Along the way, there's love, laughter and musical numbers galore.

There's much I love about this Christmas classic. Bing Crosby is superb as the reluctant romantic lead while Rosemary Clooney quietly shines as his potential love interest. Danny Kaye proves here just how truly talented he really was and steals most scenes in which he appears while his love interest played by Vera Ellen is a dynamo on the dance floor and as a supporting player to Kaye. Jagger too is quite good as the General. The acting in fact may rise this film a notch or two as it does play out in a fairly predictable way but who cares? I love this Christmas classic. Just a very sweet little movie and I'm a huge fan of Bing Crosby anyways so how could I not love it? ****1/2 out of *****

Holiday Inn (1942): Cool crooner Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) and Dancer extraordinare Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) play rival suitors to lovely newcomer entertainer Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds). Hardy wants to escape the madness of the entertainment business and soon moves into a farmhouse which he changes into an inn at which he will perform only on holidays allowing him more personal freedom while Hanover has his sights set on bigger and better things in Hollywood. Which life and man will Linda choose? Loads of terrific atmosphere in this one and is definitely something of a predecessor to 1954's White Christmas which is almost a remake of this but not quite. Here there's a romantic rivalry and romance takes center stage whereas White Christmas is as much about true friendship as it is about love if not even more so. Crosby and Astaire are both their brilliant selves here while Reynolds acts as nice support especially for Astaire's dancing. Virginia Dale also does well as another love interest of the two. Great entertainment all the way around. Crosby is extremely likable once again a somewhat reluctant romantic lead while Astaire proves quite a capable adversary in a little more caddish a role. Great stuff. Fine viewing for Christmas and really several other holidays too. ***** out of *****

[lester1/2jr]

Midnight BLue: porn stars of the 80's   -  this company has stumbled upon a really cool thing which is the combination of showing these old "Midnight Blue" shows while also having this little trivia bar come up every minute or so with some fun fact to add to the discussion.  kind of like how MST3K  made bad movies more bearable by adding jokes, these make the time go by faster and add alot to your appreciation of the stuff you're watching.  Midnight Blue was Screw magazine publisher Al Goldstein's cable access show where he interview porn stars and so forth.  He and the other interviewer, a polish guy I can't rememeber his name, are the sleaziest people imaginable. They are like Times Square in human form.  the polish guy more or less sexually assualts Vanessa Del Rio ( who looks amazing) during the opening interview. the interview with Annete Haven was interesting because she kind of suggests another route porn could have taken.  She's better looking and more intelligent than most of the other actresses and moreso even than most mainstream actresses today.  Porn didn't go in the Annete Haven direction though, it went into wall to wall sex and hey, good for it.

            2 hours worth of shows, ads for swinger clubs and also includes goldsteins appearence on  Wally George's (ridiculous) right wing talkshow circa this era 4.5/5

[Psycho Circus]

ALLIGATOR (1980):

Haven't seen this film since I was about 10 years old. It was a bit slow to begin with and it's hugely influenced by Jaws and all the other killer animal flicks of the time, but damn it was cool! I feel a review coming on.....

4/5